The present disclosure relates, in general, to electronics, and more particularly, to semiconductor packages, structures thereof, and methods of forming semiconductor packages.
Prior semiconductor packages and methods for forming semiconductor packages are inadequate, for example resulting in excess cost, poor thermal performance, decreased reliability, relatively low performance, or package sizes that are too large. More particularly, some packaged semiconductor devices include semiconductor devices, such as sensor or optical devices that require exposing one or more side surfaces of the devices, which are active surfaces, to the outside of the package. Such devices include, for example, laser devices that can be incorporated into light detection and ranging (“LIDAR”) systems. Previous methods used to produce packaged semiconductor devices with one or more side surfaces of the semiconductor device exposed have yielded poor results with problems including damage to the semiconductor device and conductive interconnects, such as wire bonds. In addition, the conductive interconnects have been left exposed to the environment through the open side surface or within the cavity of the package resulting in reliability issues. Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, through comparison of such approaches with the present disclosure and reference to the drawings.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a package structure and a method that provides a packaged electronic device that overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art. It is also desirable for the structure and method to be easily incorporated into manufacturing flows, accommodate multiple die interconnect schemes, and to be cost effective.